^Seattle Real Estate Blog: Washington State Transitions to Broker Only-What’s In A Name?
June 18th, 2010
As Washington State begins its final countdown before the July 1st date when all licensees become Brokers, a little change in the way the Real Estate Teams will conduct business has arisen. The Dept. of Licensing has made a few changes in how you and your teams name must appear and how that affects you and your Brokerage that you work for. Above I have transcribed and made a screen shot with highlights of the new Washington Administrative Code 308-124B-210 to help you understand how this looks. In essence, if your Team Name has the word ‘Realty’, ‘Realtor’, ‘Real Estate’ or ‘Firm’, you will no longer be able to use those. The use of things like ‘LLC’, ‘Corp.’ or ‘Company’ will also not be allowed. The work-around on this is you will need to register your Team Name with the State along with a payment of $200.00! BTW, I will need to change my name too so starting next week, Seattle Realty Group will be known as Seattle Residential Group…Are we having fun yet?!
For those of us in the Pacific Northwest and Puget Sound Region, I don’t need to remind you all that it has been a less than stellar spring. In fact, just a few weekends ago (at my Sons Baseball game) I believe the high temperature that day was 49º! Not only has it been cool…or even cold for some, but it’s been rainy and sprinkly and all together soggy! And it seems to be affecting a lot of people in the way they act and talk and socialize with each other. Heck, you just feel better when it’s sunny and nice! So, I submit to you this question, “Does the Weather have an effect on you and your Real Estate biz?” For some, selling waterfront homes may mean waiting for the summer months to take advantage of the views and the boats. For others, selling real estate in Seattle has nothing to do with the time of year. So, what say you? Are you feeling the Seattle gray Weather blues?
With the advent of Social Media, some of the more popular forms of Marketing your wares may not be used as much but they still hold a place in your heart. During my class yesterday, we talked about the days not long ago when we all used to send out email flyers of our listings or the service of having someone drop off flyers of your homes right in the agents mail drops…remember those days? So, what are some of the ways you used to (or still do) Market you and your listings that you feel may be going the way of the Do Do Bird?
There has been growing debate among Fed members about when to begin raising the Fed Funds Rate. What is the Fed Funds Rate? It’s the lending rate banks charge each other for the use of overnight funds, and it is used as a base rate that many other lending rates are based on, for consumer and business loans. A higher Fed Funds Rate tends to slow economic activity, as it means the cost of borrowing to finance a purchase will be higher, while a lower rate helps to stimulate activity, a ripple effect that expands into all sectors of the economy. As you can see in the chart above, the Fed Funds Rate is currently at a range of 0.0-0.25%, and it has been this low for over a year to help stimulate our economy and move us from recession to recovery.
As we head into a statistically slow(er) buying and selling period for Seattle Real Estate, can we maintain an acceptable level of activity? Absolutely! I say there’s business out there if you just look for it. Going into the summer months, real estate biz in the Puget Sound Region can be a little harder to come by with kids out of school and folks going on vacation. But there are still a lot of great deals out there and if you are an eager real estate agent or Broker, now is the time to get yourself in front of ready, willing and able buyers looking for those sweet summer bargains. Now that all the stimuli are in our rear view mirror, we need to stand on our own two feet and make the business! And with the likelihood that many buyers and sellers may be staying put this summer, keeping busy may simply be as easy as spending time hosting BBQ’s or neighborhood block parties. Organize meet ups at local events like free concerts or invite past clients over for some backyard S’mores. Just because the news is doom and gloom doesn’t mean you have to stop prospecting for business.
As one in the Real Estate Industry be it Agent, Broker or Lender, are you effectively using Social Media to your advantage? As I go around the Puget Sound Region delivering class after class on social media and blogging, I see so many great people struggling with this cultural phenomenon and I want to help! If you feel overwhelmed or just unable to wrap your head around this stuff…I’d like to talk with you. This is not hard but it certainly ain’t easy either! There is a fairly steep learning curve to this and you shouldn’t go at this on your own…nor should you need to! Social Media is no different than a normal real estate transaction! You need help? Absolutely you do…so let’s talk!
All over twitter yesterday I saw retweets of this ridiculous report from Goldman-Sachs (I’m not even going to bother with a link to this companies report) saying Seattle Home Prices will drop another 22% over the next 2 years. I’m the first one to say that we are still in a declining market here in the Puget Sound/Seattle Region but come on people…let’s get serious! Even some of the more hardcore economist and analyst out there are scratching their heads over this report. Think about it, how can a company like Goldman-Sachs make such an irresponsible prediction…they can’t even manage their own! And any statistical prediction of future prices (for anything) is always a slippery slope to say the least. But here is my biggest rub…why in the World would anyone validate this trash by retweeting or sharing it? Don’t you have anything better to do? Sure it’s tough right now but corroborating a reckless report like this makes no sense at all to me!
If you’re waiting until the last minute to get your transition course out of the way, you are in luck. On the 18th and the 25th of June, 
